This application requests support for a one year period to study and demonstrate the effectiveness of a full-time legal advocacy project, independent of the mental health service delivery system, in addressing the unmet legal needs of mentally disabled persons; and to move toward implementation and protection of the rights and interests of such persons contained in the Mental Health Systems Act and accorded by other state and federal laws and constitutional provisions. METHODOLOGY: The principal operating assumption is that need-responsive and well-documented legal advocacy, carefully planned with the participation of the target population, can produce meaningful social and delivery systems change which will benefit mentally ill persons who are in the community as well as those who are institutionalized. Thus, the aims of the project will be pursued through (a) actual litigation and other forms of individual and group advocacy; (b) description of advocacy activities in monthly activity reports with case statistics and analyses of the significance of advocacy activities in the context of Vermont's mental health service delivery system and a growing body of statutory and common law; (c) exploration of innovative and acceptable mechanisms for implementing changes in the mental system brought about by judicial decisions and regulations and statuatory changes; (d) preparation of a final report. LONG-TERM OBJECTIVES: (a) To demonstrate the impact and social benefit of legal advocacy in effecting meaningful improvement in the delivery of services to the mentally ill, and in protecting their legal and human rights; (b) to complement existing advocacy systems for the developmentally disabled, elderly and low income persons; (c) to determine minimum levels and combinations of advocacy activity and technique, quantified into staff and budget requirements, which will offer a substantitive and cost-effective system of promoting beneficial change for mentally ill persons, and which can be replicated in other jurisdictions.